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Archive for September, 2007

I’m very pleased to announce the sale of a German edition of my novel Flashforward to Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, an imprint of Random House GMBH, and for a nice pile of euros, too, I might add. ;) The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Vasquez Rocks in southern California is where the classic Star Trek episodes “Arena” and “Friday’s Child” were filmed. And the good folks at HeroComm.com — a site devoted to the actual original communicator props from the series — decided to take one of the original communicators to Vasquez Rocks for a reunion, recreating the famous […]

Over at Yahoo! Questions, someone asked, “What do YOU think science fiction is? Do you think it could be a prediction of the future?” I posted this answer: My own definition is this: Science fiction is the mainstream literature of a plausible alternative reality. That is to say, it is stories told as if to […]

For those looking for my Aurora Award-nominated short story “Biding Time,” it’s online during the voting period here as a Word document, in the DAW science-fiction anthology Slipstreams edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers, and also, I’m pleased as punch to announce, in the wonderful new anthology The Penguin Book of Crime Stories, […]

The actual fill-it-in-and-mail-it ballot for the Aurora Awards is now available online as a PDF here. If you’re an attending member of VCon in Vancouver, voting is free; otherwise, it’s Cdn$6.00 to vote — the fees go entirely to pay for the Aurora Awards trophies (which are gorgeous and are designed and built by the […]

This query, with attached manuscript, showed up in my email box today, and, yes, it was in all-caps: DEAR SIR/MADAM I AM A MEMBER OF WINNING WRITERS , USA. I PICKED YOUR CONTACT DETAILS FROM ONE OF THE WIINING WRITERS WEBSITES RECENTLY.. What did our hapless wannabe do wrong? 1. “Dear Sir/Madam” — No. Address […]

Cathy Palmer-Lister, the chair of Con*Cept, the Montreal regional SF convention, agreed several days ago to having on-site voting for the Auroras this year at Con*Cept (in addition to the on-site voting at VCon in Vancouver, the actual venue for the Aurora ceremony this year). The world should note that having on-site voting at Con*Cept […]

So, now there’s a rumor that a fan saw me in Kyoto around the time of the Worldcon in Yokohama. I was NOT — absolutely not — in Japan at any time this year. Jeepers, if I was in Japan, you think I’d pass up the chance to go to Worldcon? Besides the fact that […]

The final ballot of the Aurora Awards is now available, at long last. I’ve added a wiki version of the list of finalists to the Canadian SF Works Database that Marcel Gagné and I created earlier this year. If you know of a nominated work that is available online, go there and add a hyperlink […]

After two weeks in China, Carolyn and I are struggling mightily with Jet-lag. It’s 15 hours earlier here in Dawson than it is in Beijing, and our internal clocks are not adjusting. We finally got to sleep at 7:00 a.m. this morning and got up at almost 2:00 this afternoon — which would have been […]

With the just-announced nomination of my short story “Biding Time” for Canada’s Aurora Award, I’ve hit a major career milestone: my 100th award nomination. It’s a number that astonishes and delights me, and it breaks down thus (the number in brackets is actual wins): Analog Analytical Laboratory Award: 1 (1) Aurora Award: 33 (9) Barry […]

It looks like Astronomicon, the wonderful little SF con in Rochester, New York, has been canceled for this year. It was to have been November 9-11, 2007, but that info is gone from their website, which now says “Our next convention will be held in November, 2008.” I was guest of honor at Astronomicon 5 […]

After a wonderful two-week trip to China, Carolyn and I are back at Berton House in Dawson, Yukon. We’ll be here for 24 more days. I still plan to get more pictures and commentary up about the Chengdu SF conference, but for now — back to work on my novel! The Robert J. Sawyer Web […]

Carolyn and I have made it safe and sound to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon. Tomorrow at 7:00 a.m., we take the final flight from Whitehorse to Dawson, and return to Berton House. All is well, but we’re exhausted. The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

A Call for On-Site Aurora Voting at Con*Cept We now face a major crisis — yet again — related to the credibility of the Aurora Awards, thanks to the tardiness of release of the final ballot. The facts: 1) For good or ill, VCon, the convention at which the Aurora Awards will be presented in […]

Yup, that’s right: Dennis promised — his word — that he’d FINALLY have the Aurora Ballot done by Labor Day. But apparently that’s not to be; the promise has disappeared from the Aurora website, to be replaced with: “Apologies for the delays. 2007 voting ballot will become available later this week. As well as mail-in […]

Today, Sunday, September 2, was our last full day in Beijing. Once again, the wonderful Juana and Dede were our guides. We started with shopping (well, the women shopped — I parked myself in the English-language bookstore and browsed). Then it was off to lunch at a restaurant Juana recommended — terrific. After that it […]

Yesterday (Saturday, September 1, 2007) Carolyn and I were met at our hotel (the Park Plaza Beijing) by Juana, a lovely woman who had worked as a translator at the Chengdu SF conference, and her friend Dede — and also by a wonderful guide we’d hired for the day who used the western name Remington. […]

The 2009 World Science Fiction Convention will be in Montreal. That’s cool for many reasons, including: It’s the 30th anniversary of John Robert Colombo’s Other Canadas, the massive retrospective anthology that first established that there was, in fact, such a thing as Canadian science fiction. It’s the 25th anniversary of the first Tesseracts anthology, edited […]